1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to the art of electrical connectors, and more particularly, to an electrical connector used for connecting electronic components.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional electrical connector for connection with a flexible printed circuit (FPC) is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,883. The connector comprises an insulated housing, a plurality of contacts disposed on the housing and a pressing member pivotally assembled on the housing. The housing defines a receiving cavity extending along a longitudinal direction and a plurality of channels for receiving said contacts therein. Each contact has a contact beam with a contact portion exposed to the receiving cavity for electrically connecting with the FPC and a pivot beam with a pivot portion at its distal end extending substantially parallel to the contact beam. The pivot portions of the contacts engage with the pressing member after the pressing member being assembled on the housing. The head of the contact beam adjacent to the contact portion is designed to be a semicircle shape. Due to continuing trend toward miniaturization of the electronic devices with the rapid development of the electronic technology, requirements for smaller connector size and greater contact density are constantly being promulgated. However, in order to achieve a stable engagement between contact portion and the FPC, the housing must set much more space for accommodating the contact beams with the semicircle heads when the contacts are pressed to be elastically distorted by the pressing member. As a result, the connector with the contacts having semicircle heads cannot meet the requirement of miniaturization.
Another convention connector for connecting with an FPC is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,589. This connector is configured differently from the above-mentioned connector. The difference is that the heads of the contact beams of the contacts are designed to have a triangle shape resulting the FPC being easily inserted into the housing. However, as the contacts are constructed by stamping from a metal plate, this configuration of contacts brings another problem that contacts have many burrs on their cutting edges.
Therefore, a new electrical connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art connectors.